welcome to hardtalk. thank you, stephen. ambassador, i want to begin with some words said recently by the uk foreign minister, david cameron. he said this: the lights are flashing red right across the global dashboard. it is hard to think of a time when there s been so much danger, insecurity, instability in the world. would you agree with him on that? i would. and where do you see the instability at its most dangerous? the most pressing thing today is, of course, the middle east. you cannot deny it. it s obvious. it is a conflict that is fraught with the regional conflagration, potential global conflagration. you see what s happening what has been happening in recent days. you have seen what s been happening in the red sea with the us aggression on yemen, with the recent us was plus uk aggression on iraq and syria, the situation on the northern border of israel with lebanon. so, the middle east may explode, unfortunately. i m looking at some of your recent quotes. yo
hostages released. hamas is believed to have given a positive response to a framework proposal for a new ceasefire in gaza. the details of the deal set out by israel, the us, qatar and egypt have not been released. but it s reported to include a six week truce, when more israeli hostages would be exchanged for palestinian prisoners. israel and the us have both said they are reviewing hamas response. meanwhile, us secretary of state antony blinken arrived in tel aviv in the past few hours where he s set to meet israel s leaders. before departing from qatar earlier, mr blinken showed optimism that a deal was in sight. we put forward a proposal that was aimed at not simply repeating the previous agreement but expanding it. as the prime ministerjust said, hamas responded tonight. we are reviewing that response now and i ll be discussing it with the government of israel tomorrow. there is still a lot of work to be done but we continue to believe that an agreement is pos
ambassador vassily nebenzia, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, stephen. ambassador, i want to begin with some words said recently by the uk foreign minister, david cameron. he said this: the lights are flashing red right across the global dashboard. it is hard to think of a time when there s been so much danger, insecurity, instability in the world. would you agree with him on that? i would. and where do you see the instability at its most dangerous? the most pressing thing today is, of course, the middle east. you cannot deny it. it s obvious. it is a conflict that is fraught with the regional conflagration, potential global conflagration. you see what s happening what has been happening in recent days. you have seen what s been happening in the red sea with the us aggression on yemen, with the recent us plus uk aggression on iraq and syria, the situation on the northern border of israel with lebanon. so, the middle east may explode, unfortunately. i m looking at some of
the safety of the population. president biden has become the latest leader to voice his concern about israel s proposal to invade the city. rafah, on the border with egypt, has become the last refuge for palestinians fleeing the bombardment elsewhere in gaza, which has been going on since the hamas attacks of october 7th last year. hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by the uk. prime minister benjamin netanyahu has insisted an evacuation plan for the city is being prepared. with the latest, here s the bbc s international editorjeremy bowen. at the southern end of gaza, this is the heavily guarded border fence with egypt. for palestinian refugees, there is no further to go. laila abu mustafa fled here with her two handicapped daughters. getting on for 1.5 million palestinian civilians have been forced into southern gaza, living in dreadful conditions. now, israel says it will attack this area, claiming it will find a safe haven for civilians in one of the most dangero
and a period of calm to allow a dramatic increase in aid to hamas also said any truce had to guarantee a permanent ceasefire, something israel has senior hamas official says a delegation will head to cairo for peace talks with egypt and qatar. mr netanyahu s remarks are a blow to a sustained push by the us to reach an agreement. something the country s top diplomat, antony blinken, says there is still room for as negotiations continue. while there are some clear non starter is in hamas s response, we do think it creates space for agreement to be reached, and we will work at that relentlessly until we get there. our correspondent barbara plett usher is injerusalem and sent us her analysis on where negotiations stand. the israeli prime ministers seem to slam the door shut on a ceasefire and hostage deal, he dismissed hamas deals as delusional and said surrendering to them would only lead to another massacre and said that total bickering against the group was within reach. it wa